Our growing inability to accept, or even hear, views contrary to our own derives largely from the way social media feeds and then tries to sell us news, opinions and outlets we already agree with. What is the point of words if nobody is listening? One performance in Erik Patterson’s “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” (at Theatre of Note through August 30) that lingers relentlessly is that of Phil Ward, portraying a man named Frank recovering from the effects of a brain aneurism, much like in Emilie Beck’s “Sovereign Body,” earlier this year at Road Theatre Company. In that play, Taylor Gilbert portrayed a woman named Anna suddenly struck down by an unspecified brain disorder that left her, like Frank, fighting for words. . . Yet in Okwui Okpokwasili’s “Bronx Gothic,” words are shards that cut and gouge . . .

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